For a musical based on an Adam Sandler movie,
The Wedding Singer is surprisingly charming. It isn’t a particularly original or ambitious
musical, but the characters are likable and the plot is engaging. The production by the Summer
Pre-Professional Company of Columbus Children’s Theatre is pleasantly undemanding summer
entertainment.

Set in New Jersey in the 1980s,
The Wedding Singer follows the fortunes of aspiring musician Robbie (Thomas Miller), who
is making a living playing at weddings with old friends Sammy (Luke Winter) and George (Tilton
Wiley), and is about to marry longtime girlfriend Linda (Olivia Sergent).

After Linda leaves him at the altar, he spends some time in an orgy of self-pity, crooning songs
such as
Somebody Kill Me and projecting his feelings onto unwitting newlyweds — until a groom
throws him into a trash bin.

He is rescued by kindhearted waitress Julia (Candice Kight), who is inappropriately paired with
self-satisfied Wall Street social climber Glen (Nick Evans), until true love finally works itself
out in Las Vegas, with the help of impersonators of Ronald Reagan (Sean Doyle), Tina Turner (Zoe
Lathan) and other celebrities.

Much of the show’s charm is due to Kight’s appealing Julia, who is vulnerable, eager and
reassuringly down-to-earth. Miller’s Robbie is also pleasantly low-key much of the time.

Director William Goldsmith keeps the emphasis on small, recognizable human moments, letting the
comedy evolve naturally out of the situations in which the characters find themselves.

Musical director Tim Valentine moves easily between comic numbers — such as
Let Me Come Home, in which the frenzied Linda, played to comic excess by Sergent, tries to
woo a horrified Robbie — and romantic ones, such as the duet
If I Told You.

The Pre-Professional Company is made up of high-school and college students, with a broad base
of talent, aspiring to have careers in theater. Choreographer Dionysia Williams takes advantage of
the breadth of experience in the large ensemble for big production numbers, including one that pays
tribute to Michael Jackson’s
Thriller.